ORC is contributing to several tasks in the project including developing the PG Tool for characterising and assessing innovative case-study farms and negotiating solutions for sustainability with stakeholders. For the assessment of livestock farm systems, ORC is engaged with tasks related to method development and assessment of carbon and GHG emissions, economic and life cycle assessments of mitigation and adaptation strategies along with multi-criteria farm sustainability assessments to identify trade-offs between different sustainability and climate impacts, leading to both an assessment of overall resilience and to an advancement in methods of farm resilience assessment. An animal welfare assessment will also be carried out. As part of this, predicted changes to weather patterns will be reviewed up to the year 2100 for different geographical regions. We will also carry out a literature review of animal welfare risks and hazards (R&H) related to climate change, identifying both R&H and potential solutions at multiple levels including breeding, feeding, housing, system and management. At the end of the project, potential solutions from project trials will be included as well as any continuing risks or hazards to welfare.
